ITvessel Limited, an IT startup, has built a solution to makes the lives of both teachers and parents easier by automating a lot of the processes that were an inconvenience. They’ve named it the Edves Suite, and it was designed and executed by Dimeji Falana and his team.
One of the major problems in Nigeria is the poor record keeping culture of various institutions and organisations. Issues like lost results, payment receipts and admission papers, are prevalent in a lot of schools around the country. There have been cases of students not being able to graduate either because a particular result can’t be found, or because they do not have the minimum credit load needed to graduate.
Tertiary institutions aside, parents of students in primary and secondary schools are not fully up-to-date with the progress of their children and wards. Yes, there are report cards distributed at the end of every term and open days are held, but not many parents have the time to attend these forums.
Teachers also face challenges in providing students with the material they need. Aside from the fact that there’s so little time to cram in so much course work, a lot of material provided by lecturers are outdated. All these make the entire learning process cumbersome, not to mention frustrating.
According to their website, Edves is a portal that eliminates stress and speeds up teaching and learning activities in academic communities. Presenting itself as the solution to problems parents, students and educators face, it automates all operations from the admission stage to graduation stage. This includes enrolment, payments, E-learning and result collation/record keeping.
Deployed in over 70 schools in Nigeria so far, Edves offers services such as automated teaching, school payment reminder SMS, sessional student academic and behavioural performance report, and e-payment school fees. The platform also facilitates e-learning and offers services such as e-books, video tutorials and virtual classrooms are present on the platform. Record generation is also made easier as Edves integrates the activities of students, thereby eliminating the need for pen or paper.
The platform is customisable and can therefore fit individual school specifications; primary, secondary or tertiary. Features such as theme, logo and reporting sheets can be modified meet the needs and requirements of schools. It requires little to no IT skills and supports both cash and cashless payments.
Parents are also afforded the opportunity of keeping tabs on the performance of their children through SMS, email, web or the Edves app. As an alumni of the University of Ilorin, I already know what this feels like. Our results were uploaded on the school portal and my mother knew the courses I was taking and could even monitor my CGPA.
A self-funded initiative, Edves is presently in the Growth Academy and hopes to expand its user base from 60,000 to 100,000 this year.
